A Promise of One Thousand Years
by Anonymous Pierrot
Summary: AU setting... the era is the Heian period in Japan. Onmyouji Asakura Hao meets a Shaman from China, Tao Ren. (Haoren, shounen-ai)


The era - Heian in Japan, early 1000s. A few decades since the Heian period began, on the surface appears as an era of flourishing culture and high society. Yet underneath the apparently cultured period, contrary to the name of "peace and prosperity (1)" lay a society weighed down by plagues, failed crops, corrupted government officials and evil spirits. 

*** 

"Thank you very much, Asakura-dono." A weary female voice sighs out in a dim and empty space. The young female gives her thanks, quite emotionlessly to the figure before her. Her robes indicated her status within society: intricately decorated and rather heavy. Not something a standard person would be wearing. "It seems that so much crap is happenig recently." She sighs out again, and rests her face on her hand. Ungraciously she picks at the paper in front of her with a folded fan. "If we had more people with abilities like you things would be so much more easier for you and myself…" The young man to whom she as addressing remained silent, with a small knowing smirk tugging at his lips. The young woman suddenly snaps the fan open, and observes the man over the fan, eyes narrowing slightly. Because of the fan it is unclear what her facial expression was, but it was evident from the shine in her eyes that the fan was concealing a smile. "But of course people like yourself only appear once every thousand years or so…"   
"I think Kyouyama-sama may be over estimating my abilities…" the young man humbly bows. Long strands of hair fall around his face, creating a thin curtain of black.   
"Stop the humble act, you aren't fooling me." the young woman snorts, and snaps the fan shut. "You even know yourself that your ability surpasses any other shaman alive today…" here then, the young woman drops her voice noticeably. "I've hear that you've recently managed to acquire the secrets of the pentacle(2)…"   
"I apologize, but I'd rather keep the doors to my research closed…" the young man bows somewhat apologetically. "Sure…but it's something that I'll know sooner or later." The young woman nods nonchalantly and sits back, yet an aura of amusement tainted her. "By the way I have some interesting news…because the ability of all the other shamans in the Heian-Kyo (3) suck, there's rumour that the Tang (4) are sending over some of their shamans."   
"The Tang?"   
"It is a bit of a surprise isn't it? Seeing as the kind of people who come from the Tang are only merchants and scholars… it's like an exchange program…some shamans from China are going to come over and beat into shape the slackasses and useless shamans here. Seeing as the route of our shamanic habits initially come from China, there shouldn't be such a gap." Perhaps there is someone that can more or less measure up to your ability, the woman called Kyouyama adds on, playing with her fan.   
"Is that all that is required today?" the young man asks politely.  
"Yes, yes. I have a hell of a lot of paper work to do. If there's anything else I'll send a shiki (5)."   
"Then until next time…"   
"Yes, until next time, Asakura Hao." 

***

Once outside, Asakura Hao sighs out. He must admit, he's not overly comfortable with that woman…   
"Asakura-sama, this way…" some men, his guards or something were calling for him further beyond. Hao keeps a passive face and heads towards them slowly. He doesn't need guards, and Kyouyama knows this…he laughs bitterly internally. Guards that are merely decoration. Sure, in a time where bandits, murderers, the ill, beggars roam in broad day light, someone who is dressed as formally as he is an obvious target. But would they be any match for the onmyouji, Asakura Hao? Kyouyama's lament that there are not enough powerful shamans in an ill era such as this returns to his mind. From the perspective of the woman who is in charge of the Spirits Issues Sect of the court, this is a major headache. Sure, there aren't many people who can adequately banish evil spirits, but to make him do all the tasks is really a bit too much, Hao complains internally. 

"I have a promise to meet a friend of mine in the market place…an escort is not required." Hao addresses whom appears to be the head guards man. He spat an obvious lie, yet the guard was happy enough to accept the statement. "Yes sir!" the guard jovially replies. _You're too happy_, Hao internally stabs. Hao turns away from the escorts, and heads towards the market place. I know. No body desires to stay around a dangerous man. A man, no, he's not human. He can communicate with the dead, and control demons. The fear and repulse that the people direct to him are painfully obvious. _You do not wish to associate with the likes of me, and I do not wish to associate with the likes of you. You wouldn't understand. _

Once in the market place, Hao relaxes slightly. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle of normal people, he wanders around aimlessly. Because of his formal attire he does earn a couple of glances and fingers pointed at him, yet he walks on. He's used to such whisperings and stares from most people. But in this case, people glare at him because of his status, not his being. In a way, perhaps, this is better. 

He stops quite suddenly at the edge of the market place. Something caught his eye. A boy, appearance wise may have been Japanese for all he knew, yet his foreign clothing indicated that he was from another country, namely China. A merchant of scholar lost in the market place? Hao cannot see the figure's face, but judging from the build, he's most likely still a boy in his late teens. The boy turns around slowly, giving Hao a clear profile view of the boy. 

Golden eyes. 

For a split second Hao doubted his own eyes, but then thought immediately after, that those eyes…An indication of those who can communicate with those of the spirit world. 

Beautiful. 

For a couple of seconds Hao stood there drinking in the sight of the attractive young boy, but then soon after a slight frown taints his face. Eyes narrowing. 

Three demons. Right behind the young boy. 

So a teenage boy from China who can communicate with the spirit world…must be one of the exchange people that Kyouyama was talking about. Hao ponders whether or not to intervene, yet decides against it and chooses to observe the boy. Show us what you've got…he smirks to himself. T

he young boy was obviously aware of the prsence of the three deomons. He subtly walks away from the market place, to a more secluded area. _So he's going to banish them…_Hao's smirk has made it's way to his face. The demons are slowly approaching the boy, yet his composure gave no indication of fear or doubt. The boy bends down to pickup three small rocks, and knots a hex around them, very subtly. A normal person would not have picked the movements up, yet to Hao's trained eye he could tell that the boy knew exactly what he was doing. _So he's planning to banish them without causing a major row_… interesting. 

The boy then quickly turns around and flies the rocks by swiftly flicking his fingers. All three rocks, embed themselves like bullets into the forehead of the demons. The melt away as if they had never existed. Hao whistles in amazement. If one could not see the demons, one would not have even noticed that a banishing had taken place. Furthermore, even those were small demons, they were larger and more filthy than the standard ones that commonly roamed the market place. And there were three of them. To destroy them in a matter of seconds, all at once, suggests the underlying power this individual possesses. 

Interesting. 

"That was quite a show, young man." Hao steps into the light and addresses the boy. The Chinese youth spins around, surprised at the sudden appearance of the onmyouji. A powerful shaman who has obtained the power to melt into the surrounding environment, while the young boy was concentrating on the banishing of three demons at that. It is only natural that he did not sense the presence of Hao. The Chinese youth seemed cautious of Hao, and delivered a glare. 

"Are you from the court?" he asked, in near perfect Japanese. "There should only be a handful of people aware of our landing in Japan…"   
"I am under the, presumably correct, assumption that you are one of the shamans from the Tang?" Hao asks politely, a business smile adorning his fair face. "I am one from the Spirits Issues Sect of the court, walker of the path of the onmyou."  
"Walker of the path of the onmyou…an onmyouji? In our country there are similar branches of mysticism…" the Chinese boy comments slowly, all the while observing Hao, very subtly. His body is slightly tense, his eyes, all the while keeping firm eye contact still took in information from Hao. Perhaps it is only natural that he should do so, arriving in a foreign country and all… 

"I believe that you have not yet been to the court, am I correct?" Hao asks.   
"I was on my way there right now." The boy replies curtly.   
"Without an escort?"   
"Who needs them? They're only a nuisance." He snorts with contempt.   
"Great. Then let's leave this formality shit." Hao says, dropping the grandiose image all together. "I think they're a lousy bunch of useless humans. I don't need small men who obviously fear and hate my guts pretending they give a damn." 

The Chinese youth didn't quite know how to take in the sudden change of aura around this man. The polite and well mannered onmyouji seems to have disappeared, and what was left in place was…   
"That was a disguise?" The youth raises an eyebrow playfully. "You had me fooled for a second."  
"Like you can speak." Hao smirks back. "But your act isn't quite as refined as mine. I've obviously had more practice. You're not too bad though."   
"You mocking me?" the Chinese questions rather defensively.   
"Mocking? No, of course not…" Hao laughs. "You have a big attitude, any one ever told you that? Attitude, confidence, not to mention cute…" The Chinese boy frowns slightly at the last description. "…yeah, I like you."   
"I see…"   
"So you were on your way to the court?"  
"Didn't I just say that?" the boy replies irritably.   
"Oh, scary." Hao laughs again. The boy merely scowls. "I'll take you there. I have a word to say to the woman of the SIS."   
"Woman? A woman's running the sect?" the boy asks with mild surprise.   
"Sure. I know it's not common for a woman to hold such a power in the court, but frankly speaking, we don't have the talent in the field. Besides, it's not like anyone out there knows that it's a woman, let alone that such a sect exists." Hao lowers lashes slightly, and speaks in a slightly more solemn tone.

"Monsters are scary, aren't they? Maybe that's why we're rejected…"  
  
"?"  
"Oh well, doesn't matter…just follow me." the business smile graces Hao's face again. "Can I ask your name?"  
"…it's Tao Ren."   
"Ren…nice." Hao nods. "Suits you."   
"Sure." Ren snorts. "And you?"   
"Asakura Hao."   
"….Hao." Hao merely smiles.   
"Please follow me, Tao Ren." Hao picks up his grand onmyouji fascade, and leads the slightly confused Ren towards the Heinan court.

----------

Eeep! o_0; Is this OOC, or OOC? I started writing this one in Japanese first, and frankly speaking, it works better. You can't really tell if the guys are speaking formally or not in English…it's harder to demonstrate that. Except that writing in Japanese is really tiring, and it wasn't like the Jap version was ever going to get an audience… so here's the translation. :D Yes, it will continue. And this one will DEFINATLY be a Haoren. No ambiguous stuff here folks. So this is obviously COMPLETE piece of canon…AU, OOCness, not to mention a complete ignoring of timeline…Anna in Heian? Wtf? And Ren? Pfft. Well, I'm having fun at least. :D My knowledge of that period of time is not very extensive, so there may be some things I am making up…humour me. XD 

(1) Heian - peace and prosperity: this isn't false. Heian, written in characters means peace in general.  
(2) Pentacle: because I watched Shaman King in Japanes, I don't know what they subtitled the gokouboshi as. The five-sided star thing. Pentacle's close enough. o_0;   
(3) Heian-kyo: Tis the name that was given to the capital. The capital city at this time was in Kyoto.   
(4) Tang: I think this is the name of the dynasty then…there were at least two dynasties in China throughout the whole of the Heian period in Japan…   
(5) Shiki: like spirits basically...I think...


End file.
